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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
President Bola Tinubu and Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, yesterday called for a new, community-driven security architecture in the North Central to tackle banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder conflicts and other threats confronting the region.
Tinubu warned residents against shielding criminals on the basis of kinship, ethnicity or other sentiments, stressing that insecurity could not be defeated by security agencies or governments acting alone.
Alia, on his part, canvassed a unified regional security strategy, warning that insecurity in the North Central, Nigeria’s major agricultural belt, had serious implications for food security across the country.
The duo spoke at the 2026 North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State, with the theme, “Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability.”
Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, Tinubu said insecurity transcended state boundaries and institutional mandates, insisting that all stakeholders must work together to secure the region.
“No single agency, no single tier of government and no single community can secure this region acting alone. Insecurity does not respect state boundaries or agency mandates.
“Criminals move freely across local government areas while our responses are too often slowed by rivalry, duplication and the withholding of information. That must end,” the President said.
He particularly charged traditional and religious leaders to serve as the first line of early warning and trusted voices of reconciliation in their communities.
Tinubu also challenged residents to take greater responsibility for the security of their communities by providing timely intelligence to security agencies and refusing to harbour criminals.
“Security begins with you. I call on every citizen to share information with the security agencies, to refuse to shield criminality out of kinship or sentiment, and to resist those who would recruit our sons into violence for a handful of naira,” he said.
The President said his administration had strengthened the nation’s security architecture through increased collaboration among the Armed Forces, Nigeria Police Force and intelligence services, as well as the acquisition of new military platforms and improved welfare for troops.
He said the government was also rebuilding Nigeria’s indigenous defence capabilities through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Act.
Tinubu commended security agencies for the gains recorded against terrorists and other criminal groups, saying commanders had been neutralised, fighters surrendered, captives rescued and normalcy restored to some communities.
He paid tribute to military, police and other security personnel who had lost their lives in the fight against insecurity, particularly in the North Central.
The President, however, warned that military force alone could not address the root causes of violence or guarantee sustainable peace in the region.
“Military action alone will not deliver lasting peace to the North Central. Force can suppress violence; it cannot resolve the grievances that produce it,” he said.
Tinubu identified competition over land and water, climate change, desertification, unresolved land-use issues, weak local dispute-resolution mechanisms and the proliferation of illicit weapons as factors sustaining conflicts in the region.
He said the Federal Government would therefore combine kinetic operations with economic and developmental interventions.
The President cited efforts by the Ministry of Livestock Development to move from open grazing towards modern, settled livestock production, saying the initiative was designed to protect farmlands, improve pastoral livelihoods and remove a major source of conflict.
He also highlighted the Ministry of Defence’s Reclaiming the Ungoverned Space for Economic Benefits Programme, which seeks to deploy the experience of retired military personnel in securing and reviving communities recovering from violence.
According to him, investments in irrigation, mechanised agriculture, rural roads and access to credit under the Renewed Hope Agenda would also help turn some of the region’s vulnerabilities into economic opportunities.
Tinubu urged traditional and religious leaders to deploy their grassroots influence to identify emerging security threats before they degenerated into wider conflicts.
“To our revered traditional rulers and religious leaders, you hold an authority that no uniform confers. You know your communities intimately. You know when a stranger arrives, when a young man falls into bad company, and when a quarrel between two families is about to become a conflict between two peoples.
“I ask you to be our first line of early warning and our most trusted voice of reconciliation,” he said.
He also urged the leaders to reject inflammatory rhetoric capable of exploiting ethnic and religious differences.
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The President called for greater involvement of women and youths in peace-building, while urging the private sector and development partners to see the North Central as an investment destination rather than merely a region requiring assistance.
“To our women, who bear the heaviest burden of every conflict and yet remain the most effective peacebuilders in every community, your place is not at the margins of this conversation but at its centre.
“And to our young people, your energy is this region’s greatest asset. This administration is committed to expanding the opportunities that make a rifle a far less attractive prospect than a livelihood,” he said.
Tinubu said employment and investment were themselves critical security interventions.
“Peace and investment reinforce one another. Every factory built, every farm expanded and every young person employed in this region is a contribution to its security,” he said.
The President directed the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd), to transmit the recommendations of the summit to him and report on their implementation.
He warned against producing another communiqué that would be “filed away and forgotten”, insisting that the recommendations must be practical, with responsibilities, timelines and measurable outcomes clearly defined.
“I expect this gathering to produce clear and practical recommendations, each with an identified owner, a defined timeline and a measurable outcome.
“We will be judged not by the quality of our deliberations here, but by whether a farmer in this region sleeps more soundly a year from now,” Tinubu said.
Earlier, Alia said the security challenges confronting the North Central required states in the region to set aside their differences and build a coordinated response.
He identified banditry, farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping, spillover from violent extremism and organised crime among the threats confronting communities.
The governor said the North Central’s diversity should become a source of strength rather than division in confronting insecurity.
“It is my considered position that our diversity should be a source of strength rather than weakness. What are those things that unite us, and what are those things that divide us and breed insecurity?” he asked.
Alia said collaboration must go beyond governments and security agencies to traditional institutions and community leaders, who possess valuable grassroots intelligence.
“Collaboration cannot just live in communiqués. It must reach our traditional institutions and our community leaders, the custodians of our land.
“They know things we do not know. They hear things before we hear them. Any strategy that leaves them out is, frankly, incomplete,” he said.
The governor warned that insecurity in the region had consequences for the entire country because of the North Central’s strategic role in agricultural production.
“When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem; the whole country feels it on its dining table,” Alia said.
He also identified poverty and idleness as conditions that could be exploited by criminal groups to recruit vulnerable people.
Minister of Defence, General Musa, said the summit was convened to hear directly from residents about security threats confronting the region and develop common solutions.
He stressed the need to protect farmers and their farmlands while creating conditions for livestock production without conflict.
Musa said cattle should not be allowed to destroy farms, urging stakeholders to develop arrangements that would enable farmers to cultivate their land safely while livestock production thrived without friction.
He assured the gathering that the Federal Government remained committed to improving security across the country and tackling factors undermining peace.
Tinubu commended the Ministry of Defence and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central, for organising the summit.
The Makurdi meeting is the second in a series of regional security engagements, following the South-East Regional Security Summit held in Umuahia on July 30.
